Theme Park Closures Result In Billions In Losses For Disney
The global coronavirus pandemic continues to rage around the world, causing not just deaths but also economic and financial damage to businesses big and small. Even companies as big as Disney have suffered financially, with the House of Mouse reporting billions of losses.
Variety reports that the theme park closures brought about by the global coronavirus pandemic have resulted in a loss of $2 billion for the company. The staggering number is brought about by the fact that theme parks and live entertainment make up a lot of Disney’s income.
Before the global coronavirus pandemic, Disney’s theme parks and other related businesses have brought in $26 billion in sales for the company, or roughly 37 percent of their revenue. The closures brought about the global coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a 58 percent drop in the profits earned from these products.
It has also resulted in drastic money-saving measures from the company, such as the 43,000 workers from the Walt Disney World theme park being furloughed and Disney executives getting a 20 to 30 percent cut to their base salaries.
ABC News says that overall, Disney posted a loss of $4.84 billion for this quarter. Company revenue was $11.78 billion, a drop of 42 percent from last year and below the $12.39 billion expectation that analysts had.
The news outlet pointed out the other factors aside from theme park closures that resulted in a huge revenue drop. These include postponed movie releases, delays in video and film production, and idle cruise ships.
Revenue may still bounce back a bit as Disney has slowly been reopening theme parks all over the world. Shanghai Disneyland has already reopened with health and safety measures in place, while Florida’s Disney World had a phased opening over the course of several days.
The company has been stringent about maintaining health and safety measures, even prohibiting visitors from eating and drinking while walking as it was being used by some visitors as a loophole not to wear a mask.
Other measures the theme park has in place include the enhanced disinfection and sanitation protocols, staff and visitor temperature checks, limited visitors, the suspension of parades and meet-and-greets, as well as the presence of handwashing stations.
Whether Disney theme parks can ramp up to previous levels of revenue-generation still remains to be seen as the global coronavirus pandemic does not look to be stopping soon. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegs the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 4,698,818 people, with total deaths at 155,204.
Meanwhile, the Aug. 4 situation report from the World Health Organization puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world at 18,142,718 people. There are now 691,013 people worldwide that have died from COVID-19.